Funny, I've always known it as "staff paper" although it's sometimes sold as "manuscript paper" around here.

I never heard the expression "the dots" before I came to Mudcat. Must be folkie vernacular?   Always called them "notes" - after all, they are not all dots. Some of them are empty dots! And a lot of them have stems, flags and beams attached to those dots.

I'm wondering - are rests called "the dots" too? How about sharps and flats?